We’ve certainly had our share of tough games so far this season, but last night definitely takes the cake. Saito has been nearly automatic for two years, so it’s hard to be upset when he shows that he’s human. Still, everyone knows that we’ve got to start winning now and hopefully tonight’s the night.

Also, thanks for those of you who have shared their thoughts on the Fans Vote Bobblehead. I know that we’re getting closer to announcing results of that vote, as well as who will be depicted in the third bobblehead on July 25, so stay tuned on that front. I definitely have to give a shout out to the people at dodgerblues.com, who have taken their humor to an entirely new level (not to mention their love of yours truly). Rest assured, Blues Brothers, there are no conspiracy theorists around Dodger Stadium.

Far more important than any of that, though, is our celebration tonight of Jackie Robinson. Sixty-one years ago today, he broke the color barrier for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the game and world haven’t been the same since. We remember him, we honor him, and we thank him for everything with some great pregame ceremonies planned. If you can still come down and grab a ticket, you definitely should…

Hi Josh: Watching the Dodgers games on television has become almost unbearable this season due to the difference in sound volume between the game broadcast and the advertisements. I constantly have to either mute the sound during the commercials or be pretty quick on the volume up/down button—it simply wears me out having to be on volume patrol all the time, and I really would just like to relax during the game. Any way you could look into this with your broadcast partners (KCAL and PRIME)? Perhaps it’s an issue only with DirecTV? (If others are experiencing the same issues, please post your comments, too.) ———Many thanks, James

If Beimel won the vote, he should get the bobblehead. It’s really that simple. The Dodgers know that. They can always do a Penny bobblehead next season. Lineup looks excellent. Soon, I hope to not have to write that since it should be a given this is what it should be. I expect good things tonight and tonight will be my first game live this season with Kemp in the lineup. Just so long as the next 35 games I have, within reason, have him in it, everything with be just rosy.

Josh, I’m with James on the commercials issue. Also I’m not a Ned lover and I wouldn’t be sorry to see him go, only saying that you don’t know what you’re going to get instead, and Ned has done a few things I like , like short contracts, excepting one.

Josh, if the folks at DodgerBlues.com are wrong, then why is it taking so long for you to announce the winner of the Bobblehead vote?The contest ended well over a week ago. Obviously, you know the winner by now, and DodgerBlues has heard from Joe himself that he won.By delaying the announcement, you only make it seem more obvious that Beimel did indeed win.I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy at Dodger Stadium, but we all know that you can market Penny to the casual fans easier than you could market Joe Beimel.However, if Joe had the most votes, and he gets snubbed “for marketing reasons,” then what was the point of having him on the ballot?Please adress these questions. Thanks.

Josh, if the folks at DodgerBlues.com are wrong, then why is it taking so long for you to announce the winner of the Bobblehead vote? The contest ended well over a week ago. Obviously, you know the winner by now, and DodgerBlues has heard from Joe himself that he won. By delaying the announcement, you only make it seem more obvious that Beimel did indeed win. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy at Dodger Stadium, but we all know that you can market Penny to the casual fans easier than you could market Joe Beimel. However, if Joe had the most votes, and he gets snubbed “for marketing reasons,” then what was the point of having him on the ballot? Please address these questions. Thanks.

james_guss@yahoo.com
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Sound Volume Issues Here As Well… thought it was just me.
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The absoute best sound quality has to go out to the people who run the Padres telecasts in HD. They have their microphones placed and leveled perfectly. I can hear EVERY ambiance of BEING at the stadium (stadium announcer, umpire’s calls, crack of the bat… just like I would be hearing if sitting in a baseline seat!), as well as CLEARLY understand the announcers… who by the way tell it like it is and have given the Dodgers much praise this year in their telecasts.
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If the powers that be could find out what they’re techincally doing right in San Diego and implement it into the FSN PRIME TICKET telecasts, I’d be an extremely happy out-of-state HD viewer.

Great night for pitching prospect aficionados. It is possible that all of these pitchers will have roles in current or future Los Angeles Dodgers teams. You can never have too many promising arms in the minors.

talk about WTF… but if Karl Ravech had his way, we’d have an awesome solution for our 4 OFer problem…

———–

DESIGNATED FIELDER

By Karl Ravech, ESPN

The designated hitter was put into play in 1973. Ron Blomberg was the forefather for the likes of David Ortiz and, before him, Harold Baines and Edgar Martinez. The debate about which league is best — the National, by letting the pitcher hit, or the American, which uses the DH — will rage until there is some uniformity. I propose a new wrinkle. I’d like teams to be able to use a designated fielder.

Instead of having your eighth hitter in the NL be a near-automatic out or the ninth hitter in the American League be nothing more than a sacrificial lamb, let’s acknowledge some guys don’t hit as well as others but can be huge assets with their gloves. Coco Crisp may be the best center fielder, not just on his team but in the league. Let him play every day and let Jacoby Ellsbury or Manny Ramirez hit for him.

Others who may be great DFs include Corey Patterson, Jhonny Peralta, Shane Victorino, Willy Taveras and the Dodgers’ slick-fielding shortstop, Chin-lung Hu. The concept is tremendous for players who are struggling at the plate and need a break.
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of course, then again, we wouldn’t be too far off from using a batting tee as the “Designated Pitcher”. but let’s not let the power-fortified AL any ideas.

Josh, the way I see it, Penny’s got millions and millions of dollars and will make millions more before he’s through. He’s got several baseball cards that may or may not become collector’s items. Hell he’s even dated Alyssa Milano.

But all Joe Biemel’s got is this bobblehead thing. With the publicity you’re getting, I bet you sell a bunch of ‘em now.

While we are talking about voting, how do you all feel about the vote for All-Time Dodger Closer? A year ago I would have said Gagne in a minute but now that the Mitchell Report came out I’m not so sure. Any thoughts?

Let’s turn this ship around tonight with a win. Glad Kemp is back again. GO BLUE!!!

sorry josh, we know who really won. you can give a brad penny doll away some other day. come on now!! joe’s parents voted 2000 times which is crazy!! i think they deserve a doll of themselves along with the joe beimel doll. you say there’s no conspiracy over there, but i don’t think you are being too truthful!!! otherwise you would have given the penny doll away and no one would have known the truth. unfortunately for you, we do. you guys know this got leaked and now you have to pay up. next time just don’t put joe on the ballot if you don’t want him to win. can’t mess with dodger blues nation. we see all!!

I would like to comment on two posts from yesterday’s (tragic) game thread:
rintinjim at 3:28 today says he was at the game and could tell Saito was in trouble when Rivas fouled off 4 of Saito’s best pitches. I guess I’m jealous since even when I’m lucky enough to be in the good seats my ability to judge the quality of pitches from the stands is not up to this standard.
However, the sequence of pitches to Rivas which I somewhat remembered and checked on Gameday (which I have come to greatly respect in terms of ball placement) was fastball called strike, 2 sliders fouled off, a fastball fouled off and a fastball for a swinging strike. So only 3 not 4 pitches fouled off; not the crime of the century by jim I admit, but Saito after getting almost no work this year throws a flat fastball after a protect the plate single (with a man already on base) and jim knows Saito’s best April- after- no- work pitches and saw the tragedy coming. He also gets Saito’s pitch count wrong 28 not 24 and misuses the word hopefully but almost everyone does that.

MLK at 11:22 PM last night whlie I was still nauseous says “Torre made a fundamental managing error” in the 8th inning when he didn’t do a double switch bringing in Broxton and Hu. He magnanimously forgives Torre for this “fundamental error” since in many years of AL managing Torre has not had to deal with such difficult problems (although if I had been in Torre’s position I would have been studying double switches all Winter). However, the question is not so simple. In the 8th we had Martin and Jones coming up so the Pirates (I don’t even know their manager’s name) were going to take out Grabow the LH who pitched the 7th and bring in a RH then depending on what happened with Martin and Jones possible change to a LH or more likely given how those two have been struggling the pitchers place wouldn’t even come up in the 8th (which required one batter to reach base and no subsequent DPs)But if the 4th hitter of the inning would come up the RH pitcher would still be in there and Sweeney would be used to pinch hit. It’s a close call (certainly not woth the time I spent on it) but some power in that spot might be wanted so leaving it to a choice of Sweeney or Pierre is a reasonable choice rather than committing to Hu in advance by making the double switch. In any case, it wasn’t a fundamental mistake.

I deeply felt Martin would get his before Jones, because Russell was alway swinging level, hitting the ball hard and going the other way.
The HRs just happen.
The more you try…..sometimes the less the come.

I started to do this since ’05
2005 12-2
2006 6-8
2007 10-4
2008 6-8
After 14 games, don’t forget we got to the post season in’06.
Of course the competition is a little tougher now.
But IMO our offense is better.

Wonderful 11-2 Victory by our Beloved Los Angeles Dodgers over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Didn’t I tell you Joe Torre woud weave his magic? That is exactly what he did with Hong-Chih Kuo and Esteban Loaiza. Perfection! Way to go you pitchers! I have a great name for James Loney! Tower Of Power! What can you ever say, but superlatives about Superman Jeff Kent! A True Rocket of a Home Run! Superman Jeff Kent, you are simply The Best! Matt Kemp was super tonight with his two hits and three runs scored! I said it before, Matt Kemp will amaze us all !Rafael Furcal,Andre Ethier and Andruw Jones you guys were phenomenal!All the rest of the Dodgers were great too! This Team, is a very powerful Team and will not be denied It’s Seventh World Series Championship! After all We had to start off 5-8 since we moved to Los Angeles in ’58 and The 50 year milestone For The Los Angeles Dodgers will be a Victorious One!

There are games when this team looks great, like tonight. And then there are others whether we can’t buy a run. Why is that? Tonight everyone contributed. Tomorrow will we have the same tired complaints if Pierre is starting? Will we have to suffer through Nomar’s “comeback” when we clearly have better options? Lets hope not. I want us to keep looking great. Just remember, this is the Pirates. Lets play well against the good teams too. The Braves will be a test.

This game tonight was awesome to watch. What a great line-up it was. To see Furcal, Ethier and Loney do their part as always and to finally see Kemp, Martin and Jones get it done tonight was just icing on the cake (We knew they would just given the time, and for Kemp, the at-bats). Jeff Kents homerun was the bomb, and the pitching was fantastic tonight as well. Way to go boys – you were all fabulous tonight! All is well and as it should be tonight in this household. The Giants took their rightful place in the standings underneath the Dodgers, once again.
WAY TO GO DODGER BLUE!!

Ethier gets his first game off of the season tomorrow night, Pierre will start in left according to the L.A Times. I actually don’t have a problem with that at all. Tonight was an excellent game, we seem to do well on Jackie’s day.

I’m thinking that when they activate Nomore on Friday, Troncoso gets sent down. Can’t afford to only carry Hu to back-up both 2B & 3B, so Blake has to stay. Besides that, in a couple weeks when Nomore blows a hammy or any myriad of other injuries, Blake’s right there.

How ’bout as part of LaRoche’s rehab he learns to play 2B? This DeWitt kid’s alright, and with Kent gone after this season we need a 2B. Outside the box – LaRoche at first and Loney at 2nd in 2009?

Last observation… been a lot of comments on ITD about Andruw’s grin, and it reminded me of this: “He was smiling… That’s right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn’t know it ‘fore, they could tell right then that they weren’t a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he’s a natural-born world-shaker. “

Cool Hand Luke is one of my favorite movies. The only difference is, Luke had it and never let the guys around him down. Jones is starting to come around, though, so I’ll be patient and give him the benefit of the doubt.

But Loney at 2nd? That’s a recipe for disaster. He’d be injured within two weeks, probably a twisted ankle or a strained knee ligament trying to turn a double play with a runner on top of him.

I know DeWitt used to play second. Maybe he’s the guy who should go back over there. His body type seems much better for the position than LaRoche’s. Laroche = 213 lbs.; DeWitt = 175 lbs.

With the return of Nomar, and soon LaRoche, somebody(long-term two offensive payers) is going to have to go. I nominate Mark Sweeney, who was rarely a good player to begin with, has little if any defensive versatility, and is now 38 years old.

There’s just such a dearth of FA 2B after this year, that we’ll have to do something. I’ve never been sold on Abreu, but I sure like DeWitt, and I think LaRoche does have a future. Hu can fill the hole at short if we choose not to resign Ferk. All the other young guys will be young VETS, so I don’t see it as a problem trying to keep as many untested upside guys as we can.

That makes Furcal a little more attractive to us, doesn’t it? I know that he’s going to be costly, but right now he’s worth it.
I read somewhere that DeWitt wasn’t working out at 2nd in the minors. I don’t know why. Maybe he was having trouble turning the DP.

enchanted,
Dewitt was a 2nd baseman, I would like to see him get the opportunity to play 2nd, I like his make up, it doesn’t seem like anything gets him nervous. I doubt we will ever see Abreu live up to his potential, he is hurt to much and doesn’t seem to be a gamer at all. Laroach can play 3rd and sign Furcal to 3-4 years.

Guys on Furcal, I love his game..But he will get a long deal or a deal where it’s like 3 years and 18 million per..it’s the exact signing we bitch about here. We got hopefully two great years from the guy, move on. He will be entering his down side (historically) of his career. Prime years are 27-33. He will be 32 this year.

I don’t have a problem handing the job over to Hu next year, I think he will be gold glove at SS, I just like Ferc’s game. But you are right Jungar, If he wanted 18 mil a year for long term (over 3 years) then it is better to pass.

I hear ya scott – Thursday’s an off day anyway, and lefties hit Maholm better than righties. Besides that, Pierre has finally found his niche (picking splinters out of his rear from riding the bench.) Sounds like this is the same story as is being told about Torre and Bernie Williams – as long as Pierre’s around, Torre’s gonna want to use him regardless of who’s ABs he takes.

In my Pierre-o-meter, I have him taking 17 PAs away from Kemp, and none so far from Ethier. 16ab 0r 4h 2bi 1bb.

What’s the consensus on this one guys? – Is this a legitimate resting of Andre? or is JP taking away some ABs? I can go either way on this, so I’ll go by majority rule tonight.

Jungar,
Nomore is going to get his AB as long as Torre is manager and there is nothing we say will change it. And yes it sucks *^*%. Nomore is not even a super utility player, he is just a utility player at best at this stage of his career.
Enchanted,
I am for Slappy taking away Ethier AB’s. He is young and in no way needs a day off.

Yea— thats pretty ridiculous by Nomar. The guy is comparable to Dewitt, probably, with a clean bill of health. Why would we run him out there when he admittedly sounds far from 100%. At least the Torre quote is hardly an endorsement.

As for Raffy– I am pretty torn. I would love to sign him to another three year deal, definitely not for 18 mil per, but what about at his current contract? 13 mil i believe or so? He seems like the kind of player who is not ALL about the money and would probably pass over more lucrative deals to be in a familiar system, a team he likes, and playing in front of his best buds– i hope. Hu has skills which makes him a valuable trade commodity, but I look at it as a win win situation unless we pay Furcal more than he is currently making.

Alex, no dice on the yahoo.com trade? Come on, you have chipper to plug into third and no one playing first— LOL…

The thing i originally wanted to say was that i noticed Randy Wolf is putting together another great start of the season– i wouldve liked to resign him although i definitely understand the logic of not. If he stays healthy he will put up great numbers in that god-forsaken city. K/BB last night was 9/4 i think. Through 3 starts he has thrown 19 innings with an era below 1.5 …. not too shabby. Always liked the guy as a player, seemed like a real competitor, hope he doesn’t have a great year for the Pads, because i hate them more than i hate any team in baseball…

I would have given Wolf a shot this year, but with Ned trading for Bloaiza last year, he had already put all his eggs in one basket as usual. I though Wolf was a decent guy, but let’s hope he doesn’t make it through the year without injury for the Madres.

enchantedsunset, were you looking a little cross-eyed at Maholm’s numbers? He has pretty clear L/R splits for his career:
.
vs. R: .300 .366 .463 .829
vs. L: .226 .310 .312 .622
.
(Yes, 2008 is different, but that is, of course, a very small sample size.)
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If Ethier needs a day off, start the right-hand hitting Young in LF. Really, if DeWitt doesn’t need a day off at 3B (not that there are a lot of choices there), why would Ethier in the OF?

enchanted,
I think Pierre is taking AB’s away, especially since there is a day off tomorrow. Andre could’ve have easily made it through tonight. Look at what he’s been doing – very consistent. However,I am very biased for Ethier (especially) and Kemp, so I think Pierre is taking AB’s away from both anytime they are not in the line-up.

fogey – went strictly by Maholm’s 08 numbers – didn’t look at his career splits. I agree though, if you HAVE to rest E, why not start DY – he could use some ABs too. Guess Torre has to either play the vet because favors vets, or appease JP. Either way, Ned needs to do something about this situation.

Unless I hear a bunch of nays between now and the game, I’ll go with JP as taking at bats away from Andre tonight.

I don’t think you have to wait until tonight Enchanted. Ethier is losing AB’s to Slappy McDribble, and as soon as worthless (Nomore) comes back he is going to be stealing AB’s from DeWitt who deserves to play. He has proven he deserves the opportunity to show what he can do.

enchanted, Larry Bowa was on Jim Rome this morning and he did say that the 4 OF situation was very difficult because all four would be starters for a lot of teams. The good news: the staff acknowledges Kemp is OF starter quality; the bad news: they still think JP is.
.
Bowa also said that the biggest thing the new coaching staff had/has to change is the attitude, that a lot of young players (not just Dodgers, but young players in general) don’t bring the intensity/urgency to every situation. He singled out DeWitt as the rare young player that “gets it”, which seemed to mean always mentally prepared and understanding game situations.

I actually think JP is a starter, just not on this team. Probably not on several others either, but Ned needs to make this distraction go away SOMEWHERE. Repko is actually the prototype 4th OFer – great D, speed, decent bat, some power. Don’t know the way the current team’s made up if DY has a niche. I still see him as the Lee Lacy type.

Its nice that Bowa really appreciates DeWitt (and if he “get’s it”, what a great guy to have on the team so that maybe some of it rubs off on the others), but you know Torre’s going to remember the old superstar Nomar from a hundred years ago and play him. Our only hope is that he doesn’t cost us any games while Joe discovers that he’s a hack and can’t field his position.

With an off day/travel day tomorrow I don’t see why Ethier needs a day off today. Just another Torre machination to get Pierre in there when we thought that issue might be settled. The problem is that it never will be settled as long as Pierre is on the club – so, get rid of him already!

I remember Nomore playing much of last season while we were wondering if he was physically all right. He’ll tell you he is, because he thinks that at 70% he is bound to be better than anybody else out there – strictly selfish. I think that DeWitt is the real thing, and I hate to see him lose playing time to Nomore. He exhibits far more patience at the plate than Nomore, or most of our players for that matter, and I think he’s only made one error in all of these games. Playing Nomore will only be another Torre accommodation for the veteran set, no matter how he colors it.

Question for you guys: if we don’t re-sign Furcal, who will lead off next yr? Wouldn’t this give Ned & Co more incentive to keep Pierre? Also, w/o Furcal, that leaves us next yr w/ an infield of Hu, Abreu and LaRoche/deWitt — all promising and yet none proven. I’m for re-signing Furcal to 2-3 yrs, playing Hu at 2B, LaRoche/DeWitt fighting for 3B and Abreu as utility.

Also, just curious, why are you all so down on Nomar? I don’t expect all-star numbers or much power from him anymore, but first half of last year he was still our RBI leader. I like DeWitt, but wouldn’t mind seeing him getting AAA seasoning. When LaRoche returns, let him and Nomar fight for 3B.

Up and down our lineup, I like it! When Nomar returns, who will bat 8th?

Wow it is nice to give someone an old fashioned butt kicking…I am sure everyone has already pointed out the obvious, but a couple of thoughts on last nights game.

1. it is nice to see Andruw “twinkie” Jones get some quality swings. Maybe there is a Santa Claus, we can only hope he snaps out of it.

2. Why can we not get a starter to throw less than 90 pitches in 5 innings…Penny, Bills, Kuo their stuff is good enough, make them hit it….Nice job by Bloiza (that is tuff to admit).

3. Dewitt….he has been a god send…his fielding is where I thought we would really suffer but he has looked really good. And he is starting to turn on the inside pitch…I realize his time is limited probably but he is playing like a vet. I love the way he plays and with him and Martin we have 2 that get it. I would put Ethier there also, they are ballplayers.

4. Kemp is exciting to watch…I am sorry Torre, but if you do not see the possiblities that may be possible if he plays everyday, then you must be a blind man….at 6-2 230 and he run the bases with that much explosiveness….WOW!!! and the ball jumps off his bat.

5. Loney I love you but maybe you should stop running!!! LOL.

I know one was a missed hit and run but the 2nd wasnt even close….
We have to get this rubber game and get some momentum. The starter has to go 6-7 innings and we need to continue being agressive at the plate…..

back_2 —
.
I’m not so much down on Nomar as I’m down on the way I’m afraid he’ll be used. Since up ’til now, Torre has managed much like Grittle, I’m afraid he’ll give Nomar the full-time job and insert him into the 3-hole. If Nomar’s pattern of the last three years continues, he’ll play really well for about a month. Then, he’ll stink it up for about three months while LaRoche/DeWitt sit on the bench for three months (similar to how Nomar kept Loney off 1st base last year).

Also, he’ll hurt the rest of the team by not taking any pitches. Compared to Nomar, Kemp is a model of patience at the plate.

Josh,
I just want to give some kudos to those responsible for the newly painted murals all over the loge section. It was a pleasant surprise entering the stadium yesterday. I know they weren’t here for opening week as I didn’t notice them then. I hope the team is planning on keeping them up for the rest of the year or better yet permanently.

For those that have yet to see them, the murals are of past Dodger memories such as Koufax’s No-hitters, World Series wins, as well as many other memories. Also painted are different Dodger heroes with a small description of what they accomplished. I don’t know if they have have them in other sections. As mentioned I sat in the loge section and entered in on the third base side. I especially like the fact that any person rooting for another team immediately gets a ton of blue memories as they first walk in!

Trouble is, Torre was expecting the 2003 Pierre that helped beat his Yankees in the series. Its taking him awhile to see JPs not that guy anymore – and he still isn’t convinced (one wonders what Torre would’ve thought had he seen JPs pathetic play in FL while he was away.)

Now Nomore will be back on the scene Friday. We all know he’s a shell of the player he once was, but Torre’s going to remember Nomar from his glory Boston days and stick him in there. We’ll probably get about the same production (without the walks) as DeWitt, but like I said earlier, he’ll be a moai at third.

I feel there’s some overreaction to Pierre over Ethier tonight, but maybe that’s just me. I said last night, I don’t really have a problem with it. 1 game off out of 15, no biggie. And no doubt we’ll see him some time during the game.

OLD fogey…I hope that is the case also, because if I am James my big **** is going no where, I am anchored down….actually I like the agressiveness that Torre is showing….That is why I love to watch a Scioscia managed team, anyone at anytime will run….just do not wait for the 3 run homer….

Ethier will get his at bats…everyone sits down for a little R and R and if he is needed, but when it is 7-1 Dodgers, Andre enjoy your time with the boys on the bench. I really wish DY would get a start so he can try to get a rythym…Torre it is ok to use the bench every now and then….

BTW, in regards to the Braves series WE COMPLETELY LUCK OUT. No Smoltz and No Hudson, we face Jeff Bennett, Buddy Carlyle and Jair Jurrjens. While we throw out Lowe, Bills and Kuroda. And we miss Harang and Cueto in Cincinnati while facing Josh Fogg and a solid youngster Edinson Volquez. With Penny and Kuo facing them respectively. The next 6 games including tonight are in our favor, in my opinion.

I was at last night’s game. I don’t understand the second time Loney ran, but the first time was a busted hit and run play (and when I saw it on TiVo later, it was clear that Russell was trying to swing at a pitch well outside to protect him). Anyway, it happens.

Kemp’s triple and Ethier’s double showed something–speed and power can go together (OK, Ethier’s not really speedy, but he’s OK. Kemp, of course, is just phenomenal.)

Alex and Jungar are both right. It’s fine to have Pierre start 1 of every 15 games over Ethier. BUT–if our extra outfielders were Young and Repko, that would not be going on. Proof? How many games has Delwyn Young started? How come Torre’s not worried about keeping him “fresh”?

As for Furcal–I love him. I want us to re-sign him. But I recognize the size and length of the contract may be an issue. Still, it is probably the better move. 2009 will have question marks at both 2B (with Kent likely retiring) and 3B (with Nomar maybe retiring, but almost surely not re-signing, but no clear answer as to the replacement–DeWitt, LaRoche, Abreu, Hu, etc.). Abreu and LaRoche were pegged as the most likely replacements, but Abreu is shut down again, LaRoche has not yet played this year, DeWitt clearly has the ability, but you hope to see more power from a third-baseman than we have seen so far (though, as many have pointed out, he drives the ball well, so maybe just a little more and it will come), and Hu is a slick fielder and quick runner, but we have not seen his bat entirely. So we’ll likely have 4 guys to fill those two infield slots (maybe 5, as there may be someone on the farm who we take note of during the course of this season, like with Hu or DeWitt)–it would make sense to keep our anchor (and lead-off hitter) the same. The reality is that having 2 of every 4 or 5 prospects pan out is a really good ratio, so pushing for 3 is a lot–we might just be a little spoiled of late because Martin, Loney, Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, and Broxton HAVE panned out as high quality starters (any maybe flat out All-Stars), it’s a foregone conclusion that Clayton Kershaw will pan out in the same, and it looks like Hu, LaRoche, DeWitt, and Abreu are all capable of panning out (and at least can be major league players).

If Raffy took a 3-year deal before 2006, it’s hard to imagine giving him more than 3 years this off-season, and that seems about the right amount of time.

When you have a very good player who is unlikely to decline significantly, it is generally a good idea to hold onto him.
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Furcal’s provides outstanding, if not quite Gold Glove, defense. He is a solid hitter with a good average and some power. He will not turn 31 until after the season. In other words, he is a very good player who is unlikely to decline signigicantly in the next three years.
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I think the Dodgers would be wise to sign him early this season before he decides he’s going to hold out for free agency.
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Hu is a good but not great prospect. Not good enough to let a proven talent like Furcal get away. If Hu proves he can hit in the bigs, he can play another position for a few years.

MLKemp, I think Hu is a good trade bait if he isn’t the starting SS next year. Like you said he doesn’t look to be as good as martin, loney, kemp, Either, Brox, or even Dewitt. If we resign Ferc, trade him for a good middle reliever or a couple of good prospects.

They should have a 3 piece set. The Frank, Ned, Joe bubble-head collection. Have Frank with his hands over his ears, Ned with his hands over his eyes, and Joe with his hands over his mouth.
Frank doesn’t want to hear how bad Ned has screwed up, Ned can’t see how bad he has screwed up, and Joe won’t say anything about it.

According to Forbes magazine, the Dodgers are ranked as the fourth most valuable baseball franchise just short of $700 million. I love jhall’s idea for the Frank, Ned, Joe triple bobble head idea, but Frank can afford to cover his ears and not listen to how much money Ned is costing him, because he’s got the franchise that just lets him print money. The fans want to see some results after 20 years.

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